News Conference following Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit.Part 1
June 16, 2009
Yekaterinburg
Пресс-конференция по итогам заседания Совета глав государств членов Шанхайской организации сотрудничества.Part 1
16 июня 2009 года
Екатеринбург
PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
As president of the nation that just turned over its chairmanship of the SCO, I would like to tell you about some of the outcomes of our work within the meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State. I would like to make a few general remarks before moving on to questions.
First, Ill say straight away that although we had a great deal to talk about, we were able to discuss all of our concerns. We began our discussions yesterday, during an informal meeting (first in a restricted format, and later in an informal setting). Today, we continued our discussions in a new format that we hadnt had before: in a restricted format that also included the heads of observer states, followed by a plenary session. Our discussions were honest, occurring in an atmosphere of mutual trust. We talked about prospects for developing the SCO and problems stemming from the global crisis, as well as our key topics of discussion: terrorism, drug trafficking, and everything else that concerns the Shanghai Cooperation Organisations member states.
Second, I would also like to talk about the final evaluations and agreements reflected in the joint communiquй, the Yekaterinburg Declaration. They will soon be uploaded to websites, so you will have a chance to read them. Most importantly, SCO members are determined to further develop our multifaceted cooperation on security issues and on strengthening of our economic and humanitarian ties. Today, we signed the SCO Convention Against Terrorism. This is a serious document and, I must admit, a long-awaited one. We signed the Regulations on political and diplomatic measures and mechanisms of reaction to situations endangering regional peace, security and stability.
The third matter we addressed was discussing cooperation on Afghanistan-related matters. There was an emphasis on implementing the agreements that were reached at a special SCO conference on Afghanistan which, as you recall, took place in March of this year, in Moscow, so the statement [by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on combating terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and organized crime] and the plan of action are being implemented.
We discussed other regional problems, including North Korea and some of the threatening statements it has recently made. We also noted that its behaviour is unacceptable in todays situation and that the international community had to respond by adopting a corresponding [UN] Security Council resolution.
The fourth topic was the SCO member states response to challenges posed by the global crisis; rather, we began with that. We seem to have similar views here: we cannot be content with superficial changes, we need to react, and we need to create a new global system of financial security. We therefore need to tap into the Organisations potential, particularly by working within the SCO Business Council and the SCO Interbank Consortium. From time to time, we also need to bring together experts and give instructions to our finance ministers and the chairpersons of our central and national banks to meet and coordinate their macroeconomic positions.
Our fifth and equally important topic of discussion was humanitarian cooperation cooperation in the area of education, culture, and ties between young people. We are already doing a lot in this area; we are planning to create a special SCO university, we are holding festivals, and we will be establishing a youth council.
We continued to work actively on public health issues focusing specifically on the most serious types of diseases, infectious diseases, and reacting to present-day health threats, including epidemics and pandemics. In May, a conference was held in Moscow addressing these issues.
We believe that one of the principles of the SCOs work is being open to cooperating with other international organisations. During todays meetings and discussions, two new states Belarus and Sri-Lanka were given the dialogue partner status. We also discussed the fact that countries with an observer status in the SCO must participate more actively in all formats of its work. This is a common position held by the Russian Federation and other countries.
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14:31Пресс-конференция Дмитрия Медведева 18 мая часть_2by twix230891001,145 views
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